The present invention relates generally to personal toilet devices, particularly to foldable personal commodes, as well as to portable, stowable personal commodes, and most particularly to portable, compact, sturdy, mechanically flexible, non-chemical personal portable commodes which offer the user a variety of operating options to meet his or her personal physical requirements.
While personal, portable commodes utilizing water and chemicals in a flush system have been in use for years, as well as various devices for the dry collection of human waste in a bag or solid container, the state of the art, prior to the present invention, has not included an invention which offers such portability, stability, compactness, sanitary features, novel systematic collection of waste and flexibility of operation.
While the present invention can be effectively used by ambulatory, nor non-impaired, persons, it is particularly suited to, and primarily designed for, individuals who have physical disabilities which prevent them from easy access to and operation of standard private or public toilet facilities; i.e. those found in homes, restaurants, hotels, motels, cabins, boats, recreational vehicles, campgrounds, vans, certain airplanes and other typical commode locations.
Further, such a device is useful in home health care, post operative and/or rehabilitative situations where the individual may have difficulty due to his impairment in accessing conventional toilet facilities. Prior personal portable commodes did not satisfy such needs for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to design inadequacies, cost, weight, lack of stability, small platform size, small seat size, maintenance requirements, service requirements, and other operational drawbacks.